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Tuesday, February 14, 2017

CES Quick Looks

By Robert Sanborn

What surprises me a lot about CES is how many new products that are announced are still not yet available and will be rolling out in the first half of this year. Prior to the start of CES, the show formerly known as "The Consumer Electronics Show", was two days of events for the press and media. It looked like this year, there were over 3,500 people covering the show for media outlets from traditional newspapers, television, cable, to websites like this one and the hundreds of blogs. People streaming content were everywhere and you saw everything from sophisticated video cameras to smartphones mounted on selfie sticks. So for two days, I was treated to press events, news releases, and exhibits, like CES Unveiled, that may or may not make it to the show floor when CES actually opens.

First up was Honor. They are part of the huge Chinese phone maker Huawei and want to make a splash in the US Market with some pretty neat phones. Their press event was standing room only and worldwide, Honor already has over 100 million fans and users. A first tier company in China, they are number one in their market with a ton of goodies like dual camera, high speed, powerful battery and the like. Available for the US Market at Best Buy

Tech Trends told us that over 165,000 people will attend to see over 3,800 exhibitors at CES. Trends include voice recognition that is matching human parity which is an error rate of only 5 or 6 %. This allows the next computer interface to be voice and that doesn't surprise me at all considering sometimes it is like my daughter talks to Siri more than to me. You will see it more in the Smart Home, Smart Cars, Smart Cities, and with digital personal assistants; and of course, you will be wearing them. We used to dream of robots everywhere and now they are here. the 2020s will be the age of adaptive automation. Don't forget the drones and Virtual Reality.

Unveiled is the CES event where they show products and companies making a splash or hoping to make a splash in the consumer electronics market. This image is of the Ability3d Printer that creates metal objects on your desktop. Like many of the other companies here, Ability3D won't be available soon and they will be starting a Kickstarter campaign. In fact, wandering through Unveiled, one of the most common questions you ask is when will it be available. Will be priced under $3,000.

Airthings, like many new devices for the home, is a Smartphone enabled device that will give you information about a new kind of Radon detector as well as temperature and humidity inside the home. Take a look at the Airthings website for an excellent look at what Radon is and why you should be concerned about especially those of us that live in the Midwestern USA. A very cool unit that non only connects to your phone, but also instantly tells you if you have a problem. Simple to connect, and simple to use. Coming in March and it will be around $199.